12 December 2023 , 10:21
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Frankie Dettori is one of six nominations for this year’s BBC Sports Personality of the Year.
The Italian had announced that 2023 was to be his last in the saddle but he enjoyed so much success that he performed a late u-turn to continue his career in America.
His supposed farewell season got off to the perfect start when he won the 2000 Guineas on Chaldean and he went on to land another Classic by taking the Oaks on Soul Sister.
Further big-race glory followed at Royal Ascot in the Gold Cup on Courage Mon Ami and the winners continued to flow – so much so that he later admitted that by August he was having second thoughts about his retirement decision.
On Champions Day at Ascot, his scheduled last meeting in Britain, he produced a stellar ride on Trawlerman in the Long Distance Cup and signed off in customary fairytale fashion by winning the Champion Stakes on King Of Steel.
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So far Sir Anthony McCoy is the only jockey to have won the award in 2010. Dettori himself finished third in 1996, the year of his ‘Magnificent Seven’, when he went through the card with all seven winners at Ascot. Hollie Doyle was third in 2020.
The event will take place on Tuesday, December 19 and the other nominees are cricketer Stuart Broad, England goalkeeper Mary Earps, wheelchair tennis player Alfie Hewett, heptathlete Kataina Johnson-Thompson and golfer Rory McIIroy.
Dettori has just completed a spell on reality TV show I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here!, in which he was the first contestant to be voted off.